FAQ: Wild Chincoteague Ponies and Pony Penning

It’s almost Pony Penning week! If you’re bound for Chincoteague for the first time, or simply want to brush up on your wild pony facts, this is the blog post for you. 

This blog covers the history of the Chincoteague pony, but today, we're going to talk about the present. Since newcomers to Pony Penning tend to have a lot of questions, I’ve put together a FAQ about the ponies and Pony Penning at large. 

Full disclaimer, I’m not associated with the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department and I'm not speaking in any official capacity–I’m just a pony nerd who’s attended every Pony Penning since 2004 and has heard a lot of the same questions asked around the corrals. 

Who owns the wild ponies?

The wild Chincoteague ponies are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department (CVFC), who have a permit from the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to keep ponies on Assateague Island.

The wild foals are auctioned to benefit the CVFC. The auction provides the money for firefighting equipment and for the maintenance of the wild herd. 

The men who ride in the roundup are called saltwater cowboys. Being a saltwater cowboy is a big deal, and the position is usually passed down from father to son. 

A saltwater cowboy herds ponies after the 2022 pony swim. Photo by Sarah Boudreau.

What day does the beach walk/swim/auction/etc happen? 

It's the same basic schedule every year, and here's the basic breakdown: 

Saturday - The southern ponies are rounded up and put into the corrals on Beach Road on Assateague. 

Sunday - The northern ponies are rounded up and put into the corrals on the northern side of the island. Unlike everything else on this list, this is not a public event. 

Monday - At sunrise, the northern ponies are herded down the beach and into the southern corrals. 

Tuesday - No big events happen on Tuesdays! The ponies get vet checks and buyback foals are chosen and tagged. More on this later. 

Wednesday - Pony swim day! The ponies swim the channel at slack tide, which is when the tide/current is weakest. The time varies year to year. After they swim, the saltwater cowboys rest them for an hour, then they are herded through town and into the carnival grounds. 

Thursday - The foals are auctioned at the carnival grounds! In the evening, the northern ponies are loaded into trailers and brought back to Assateague. 

Friday - In the morning, the southern ponies are herded back through town and swim back to Assateague. 

You can find a more detailed schedule of events on the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce website.
 

How many ponies are there?

There are about 150 adult ponies on the island at any given time. The number of foals varies from year to year, but it tends to be between 50-70.

The ponies live in one of two massive, fenced-in compartments on Assateague. The northern compartment is much bigger than the southern compartment, which is located along Beach Road.

Assateague Island stretches across the Virginia/Maryland border, and a fence divides the two states and the two pony populations. The Maryland side has its own ponies who are managed by the Park Service. Maryland ponies are not rounded up and are not auctioned. 

A rough map of where the compartments are. 

Do they sell all the foals?

All but one foal will be sent through the auction–the one foal that is not auctioned off is raffled off. Every year, the first foal to hit the shore during the pony swim is named King or Queen Neptune and is raffled off on Wednesday evening. You can buy a raffle ticket at the carnival grounds, either at the information booth or from volunteers walking around. 

The 2013 King Neptune, a colt by Surfer Dude out of Diamond's Jewel. Photo by Sarah Boudreau. 

All the other foals will be auctioned off. Most will be sold to homes, and some will be kept as buybacks.

What’s a buyback?

A buyback, also called a turn-back, is a foal chosen by the CVFC to live wild on Assateague. Buybacks replenish the herd, replacing older ponies who have died. Buybacks go through the auction and are announced as buybacks, but the winning bidder does not actually buy the pony. The winner gets to name the pony and get their picture taken with it, and the CVFC maintains ownership. This is how the wild ponies get their names! 

In the corrals, the CVFC places tags around buybacks’ necks so you can tell them apart from foals you can take home.

Lorna Dune in 2013 with her red buyback tag. Photo by Sarah Boudreau.

What's a fall pickup?

When the veterinarian determines that a foal is too young to leave its mother at the auction, the foal is designated a fall pickup. Instead of bringing the foal home in July, the winning bidder picks up the foal at fall roundup in October. 

Do they ever drown during the pony swim?

The CVFC is very proud to say that in almost a hundred years of the pony swim, they haven’t lost a single pony. As a precaution, the CVFC takes the weaker ponies and trailers them to Chincoteague. Very old ponies, very young ponies, very pregnant ponies, and others do not swim the channel. 

Chincoteague ponies are exceptional swimmers–there are reports going back to the 1800s remarking on how skilled they are at swimming. On Assateague, the ponies will often get in the water to escape the bugs or to swim towards tastier food. There have been several times when a wild stallion has driven his herd into the water and they’ve made the swim to Chincoteague by themselves!

What are the brands for?

The ponies are freezebranded on their left hips with their year of birth. This makes it easier to tell the ponies apart and helps the CVFC manage the herd.

Freeze branding uses a very cold iron to freeze the hair follicles, turning them white. It’s much less painful than hot branding.

Poco's Starry Night has a clear 12 brand to indicate she was born in 2012. Photo by Sarah Boudreau.

What’s the paint for?

The ponies who are too old, too young, or too pregnant to make the swim are marked so the cowboys know which to put in the trailer.

 

They all look pregnant! What’s up with that?

You’ll notice that the wild ponies tend to have big, swollen bellies–even the stallions! This is because of the ponies’ diet. Their diet is very high in salt because they drink mostly brackish water (mixed salt and freshwater), which causes their stomachs to look like that.

Do the ponies get any veterinary care?

Since they’re wild, the ponies are mostly left to their own devices. However, they are all rounded up in the spring and the fall for vet checks and vaccinations.

During Pony Penning, you’ll see the veterinarian and his assistants checking on the ponies.

Which one is Riptide?

The blond stallion with the 09 brand! Riptide is a crowd favorite and is often the first pony people can pick out of the herd. His sire, Surfer Dude, was also the most well-known wild pony back in his day.

Surfer's Riptide. Photo by Sarah Boudreau

What other questions do you have? Let me know in the comments!